WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.960 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We've got quite 00:00:02.960 --> 00:00:05.379 a fascinating figure to unpack today. You've 00:00:05.379 --> 00:00:07.759 given us a stack of sources detailing a career 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:10.400 that's, well, incredibly versatile, almost hard 00:00:10.400 --> 00:00:13.470 to pin down. That's right. Our mission today, 00:00:13.550 --> 00:00:15.730 it isn't just about listing credits, is it? We're 00:00:15.730 --> 00:00:17.829 trying to connect the docs, the sort of aesthetic 00:00:17.829 --> 00:00:21.629 through line in a body of work that really jumps 00:00:21.629 --> 00:00:24.149 between worlds. Exactly. You've got the high 00:00:24.149 --> 00:00:27.230 pressure, like mainstream late night comedy scene 00:00:27.230 --> 00:00:30.329 on one hand, and then this painstakingly slow, 00:00:30.510 --> 00:00:33.750 often really bleak universe of cult stop motion 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:36.649 animation on the other. How does one person bridge 00:00:36.649 --> 00:00:40.509 that gap? Well, that person is Konstantinos Pollack's 00:00:40.509 --> 00:00:42.990 Alexandros Stamatopoulos. Even just saying the 00:00:42.990 --> 00:00:44.710 full name, it suggests something kind of grand. 00:00:44.829 --> 00:00:46.490 Right, it really does. But yeah, so much of his 00:00:46.490 --> 00:00:49.049 most influential stuff, it's been done from behind 00:00:49.049 --> 00:00:51.149 the scenes, behind a camera or maybe a puppet 00:00:51.149 --> 00:00:54.649 stage or, well, even behind some... Truly ridiculous 00:00:54.649 --> 00:00:56.509 facial hair. Absolutely. So we're looking for 00:00:56.509 --> 00:00:58.509 that common artistic thread, the link between 00:00:58.509 --> 00:01:01.649 the writer who hammered out, what was it, 540 00:01:01.649 --> 00:01:05.069 episodes of Late Night with Conan O 'Brien. 540. 00:01:05.109 --> 00:01:08.569 Yeah. Just think about that volume. Rapid fire, 00:01:08.689 --> 00:01:11.390 high volume comedy night after night. And then 00:01:11.390 --> 00:01:13.849 you contrast that with the creator behind Moral 00:01:13.849 --> 00:01:17.170 Oral. I mean, that shows just this dark, deeply 00:01:17.170 --> 00:01:21.109 specific religious satire. It couldn't feel more 00:01:21.109 --> 00:01:23.900 different. Right. And yet. There is a connection. 00:01:24.079 --> 00:01:25.840 And of course, we can't forget the role most 00:01:25.840 --> 00:01:27.640 people probably recognize him from instantly. 00:01:27.859 --> 00:01:30.840 Alex Darburn's Osborne on Community. Unforgettable. 00:01:30.840 --> 00:01:33.079 That's the visible tip of the iceberg for many. 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:35.659 Yeah. But the thread connecting all of it, I 00:01:35.659 --> 00:01:38.819 think, is satire, specifically black comedy. 00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:42.000 He has this mastery of adapting that really dark 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:44.379 sensibility to completely different forms, different 00:01:44.379 --> 00:01:48.099 mediums. So Stamatopoulos. Born 1964. You're 00:01:48.099 --> 00:01:50.260 saying he essentially defined two totally different 00:01:50.260 --> 00:01:52.340 comedy ecosystems. I think so. You've got the 00:01:52.340 --> 00:01:54.519 high stakes 90s writer room, that crucible. And 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:56.540 then there's the niche kind of creator driven 00:01:56.540 --> 00:01:59.239 world of modern adult animation. He was foundational 00:01:59.239 --> 00:02:01.560 in both. OK, so to really get this, we need to 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:03.659 go back back to the beginning, the early 90s. 00:02:03.739 --> 00:02:07.159 Where does this almost impossible career trajectory 00:02:07.159 --> 00:02:09.860 actually start? Let's dig into that sketch comedy 00:02:09.860 --> 00:02:12.460 foundation. Yeah, the foundation. And it kicks 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:14.840 off with a really specific, almost accidental 00:02:14.840 --> 00:02:18.800 lucky break. It's one of those great, uh... how 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:21.340 I got started stories in comedy. It didn't even 00:02:21.340 --> 00:02:23.039 have to do with the show he first got hired on, 00:02:23.060 --> 00:02:25.919 right? Exactly. Stomatopoulos wasn't, you know, 00:02:25.939 --> 00:02:28.400 a known name in Hollywood writer circles back 00:02:28.400 --> 00:02:30.860 then. He didn't come up through the usual channels 00:02:30.860 --> 00:02:33.460 like The Groundlings or Second City. Right. He 00:02:33.460 --> 00:02:36.419 lands his first big writing gig because the comedian 00:02:36.419 --> 00:02:39.840 Andy Dick, who he knew, convinced him, basically 00:02:39.840 --> 00:02:43.479 pushed him, to submit a spec script. A sample 00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:45.800 script. Okay. And the spec script was for The 00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.460 Simpsons. Wow. Okay. The Simpsons. That's like 00:02:48.460 --> 00:02:51.099 the Mount Everest of spec scripts for anyone 00:02:51.099 --> 00:02:53.060 trying to break in, especially back then. Totally. 00:02:53.139 --> 00:02:55.740 It's the gold standard. And, well, The Simpsons 00:02:55.740 --> 00:02:57.719 didn't actually hire him off that script. Oh, 00:02:57.719 --> 00:02:59.740 okay. But that sample, which must have shown 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:02.520 off his sharp character -driven comedy chops, 00:03:02.840 --> 00:03:06.460 it landed on the right desk. It got seen by the 00:03:06.460 --> 00:03:08.560 people putting together the Ben Stiller show 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:12.110 in 1992. And they hired him. Just like that. 00:03:12.229 --> 00:03:14.150 Pretty much immediately onto the staff. So he 00:03:14.150 --> 00:03:17.370 essentially used, you know, one of the most famously 00:03:17.370 --> 00:03:20.210 difficult animation show scripts as his calling 00:03:20.210 --> 00:03:23.030 card for a live action sketch comedy show. Kind 00:03:23.030 --> 00:03:25.590 of wild. That is wild. And the success wasn't 00:03:25.590 --> 00:03:27.810 gradual either, was it? It was almost instant 00:03:27.810 --> 00:03:29.969 recognition, high profile, right off the bat. 00:03:30.129 --> 00:03:33.490 Absolutely staggering. They won the 1993 Primetime 00:03:33.490 --> 00:03:36.330 Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety 00:03:36.330 --> 00:03:39.210 or Music Program. Boom! First major gig. That's 00:03:39.210 --> 00:03:42.099 huge. The Emmy itself is obviously crucial, yeah. 00:03:42.259 --> 00:03:44.500 But if you look at the names he won alongside, 00:03:44.819 --> 00:03:46.780 I mean, it's basically a blueprint for the next 00:03:46.780 --> 00:03:49.639 two decades of American comedy. Who else is on 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:52.180 that list? You've got Judd Apatow, Robert Cohen, 00:03:52.379 --> 00:03:55.439 David Cross, Brent Forrester, Jeff Kahn, Bruce 00:03:55.439 --> 00:03:58.889 Kirschbaum, Bob Odenkirk. And Ben Stiller himself, 00:03:59.090 --> 00:04:01.449 of course. It wasn't just an award. It showed 00:04:01.449 --> 00:04:03.830 he was immediately placed in the absolute top 00:04:03.830 --> 00:04:05.969 tier of comedy writing talent at that moment. 00:04:06.150 --> 00:04:08.490 Wow. He was literally in the room where it happened, 00:04:08.550 --> 00:04:10.509 shaping modern comedy. Pretty much. He was right 00:04:10.509 --> 00:04:13.150 there as the sort of modern rules of comedy were 00:04:13.150 --> 00:04:15.509 being written and rewritten. And you mentioned 00:04:15.509 --> 00:04:17.350 Bob Odenkirk in that list. That seems like a 00:04:17.350 --> 00:04:20.269 really key connection, especially looking at 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.470 where Stamatopoulos' career went next. Stiller 00:04:23.470 --> 00:04:25.870 and Apatow obviously went on to define film comedy. 00:04:25.990 --> 00:04:27.889 Right. But for Stamatopoulos... Bob Lowe's specific 00:04:27.889 --> 00:04:31.399 path. That Odenkirk relationship is absolutely 00:04:31.399 --> 00:04:34.439 fundamental. That's the key professional alliance, 00:04:34.639 --> 00:04:36.579 you could say. Where did that start? Right there 00:04:36.579 --> 00:04:38.439 on the Ben Stiller show. That's where they first 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:41.040 clicked. And you can see why, right? Their collaboration 00:04:41.040 --> 00:04:45.680 seems defined by this shared love for character 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:49.040 -based absurdity, but also really pointed satire. 00:04:49.139 --> 00:04:51.319 And they just kept working together. It carried 00:04:51.319 --> 00:04:53.500 on through Late Night with Conan O 'Brien and 00:04:53.500 --> 00:04:57.459 then, crucially, on to Mr. Show. These 90s writer 00:04:57.459 --> 00:04:59.480 rooms, they were... really were like incubators, 00:04:59.519 --> 00:05:01.620 weren't they? Forging these lifelong creative 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:04.500 partnerships under intense pressure. Yeah, you 00:05:04.500 --> 00:05:06.500 can see that. And speaking of intense pressure, 00:05:06.620 --> 00:05:09.699 that Emmy win, it led directly into what you 00:05:09.699 --> 00:05:11.879 call the late night crucible. The Ben Stiller 00:05:11.879 --> 00:05:13.680 show, despite the Emmy, it got canceled pretty 00:05:13.680 --> 00:05:16.699 quickly. Yeah. Classic Fox. Brilliant show. Short 00:05:16.699 --> 00:05:19.639 life. So Stamatopoulos had to shift gears, moves 00:05:19.639 --> 00:05:22.439 to New York, right? Yeah. And just dives headfirst 00:05:22.439 --> 00:05:24.980 into the daily grind of late night television. 00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:27.259 Headfirst is right. And that grind, that's where 00:05:27.259 --> 00:05:29.699 the numbers just become kind of mind boggling, 00:05:29.839 --> 00:05:32.399 mythological almost. You mentioned the Conan 00:05:32.399 --> 00:05:35.759 number before. 540 writing credits for Late Night 00:05:35.759 --> 00:05:39.500 with Conan O 'Brien. Between 1993 and 1999. Just 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:41.259 pause and think about that for a second. It's 00:05:41.259 --> 00:05:44.600 enormous. 540 episodes. That means contributing 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:48.980 material, jokes, sketches, day in, day out, for 00:05:48.980 --> 00:05:52.399 this nightly machine for six straight years. 00:05:52.519 --> 00:05:55.060 That's not just a job, you know? It's like an 00:05:55.060 --> 00:05:57.199 intellectual boot camp for comedy writing. You'd 00:05:57.199 --> 00:06:01.000 have to master so much. Obviously, delivering 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.439 under that constant punishing deadline. But also 00:06:04.439 --> 00:06:07.600 the specific tone. of early conan right that 00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:09.920 intellectual absurdism the self -aware kind of 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:12.360 meta comedy it was really different from the 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:14.360 sketch stuff he'd done on Stiller. Completely 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:15.779 different beast. And that's the psychological 00:06:15.779 --> 00:06:17.759 aspect we should probably touch on. In sketch, 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:20.319 you might spend weeks polishing a few perfect 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.740 minutes. In late night, especially back then, 00:06:22.879 --> 00:06:25.519 you're churning out a constant stream of ideas. 00:06:25.959 --> 00:06:29.379 Jokes, absurd bits, topical stuff. Aiming for 00:06:29.379 --> 00:06:32.279 good enough, often, knowing most of it vanishes 00:06:32.279 --> 00:06:34.800 by the next morning. It has to fundamentally 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:37.500 change how you approach writing. You internalize 00:06:37.500 --> 00:06:40.199 it. Exactly. Joke structures, character voices. 00:06:40.750 --> 00:06:43.589 It gets baked into your DNA at an almost atomic 00:06:43.589 --> 00:06:45.769 level. You just have to generate, generate, generate. 00:06:46.129 --> 00:06:47.550 And it wasn't just Conan during that period, 00:06:47.610 --> 00:06:50.569 was it? He was juggling. Nope. He was moonlighting, 00:06:50.569 --> 00:06:53.810 essentially, over at CBS, too. He logged, I think 00:06:53.810 --> 00:06:56.649 the sources said, 131 writing credits for The 00:06:56.649 --> 00:06:58.350 Late Show with David Letterman. That was between 00:06:58.350 --> 00:07:01.550 96 and 97. So he's writing for Conan and Letterman 00:07:01.550 --> 00:07:04.629 concurrently for a bit. That's, wow. Yeah. Talk 00:07:04.629 --> 00:07:06.769 about being a utility player. He's working within 00:07:06.769 --> 00:07:09.089 the distinctly different comedic voices of the 00:07:09.089 --> 00:07:11.339 two absolute. giants of late night at the time. 00:07:11.379 --> 00:07:13.480 And their voices were distinct. Letterman had 00:07:13.480 --> 00:07:15.980 that more observational, maybe slightly cynical, 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:18.300 sophisticated New York feel. Right, polished 00:07:18.300 --> 00:07:22.519 irony. While Conan embraced just sheer unchecked 00:07:22.519 --> 00:07:24.639 silliness sometimes, high absurdity. Totally. 00:07:25.420 --> 00:07:28.079 And the fact that Stamatopoulos could navigate 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:31.459 both, contribute meaningfully to both, it shows 00:07:31.459 --> 00:07:33.819 he wasn't just a one trick pony. He wasn't defined 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:36.980 by a single style. He was a master chameleon, 00:07:36.980 --> 00:07:39.899 operating at the highest level of TV satire writing. 00:07:40.120 --> 00:07:42.079 We should also quickly mention the Dana Carvey 00:07:42.079 --> 00:07:44.680 Show, another one of those brilliant but short 00:07:44.680 --> 00:07:47.360 -lived sketch shows from that era. Absolutely. 00:07:47.379 --> 00:07:49.860 That show was legendary for its writing staff, 00:07:49.980 --> 00:07:52.620 too. Stamatopoulos was there, not just writing, 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:54.500 but also stepping in front of the camera a bit. 00:07:54.660 --> 00:07:56.519 Oh, yeah. What kind of roles? The sources mentioned 00:07:56.519 --> 00:07:59.300 things like... guy in nixon mask or being one 00:07:59.300 --> 00:08:01.339 of the wazir brothers you know typical bizarre 00:08:01.339 --> 00:08:04.720 sketch characters but it shows even early on 00:08:04.720 --> 00:08:06.779 he wasn't strictly confined to the writer's room 00:08:06.779 --> 00:08:10.259 he was willing to like embody the weirdness he 00:08:10.259 --> 00:08:12.470 was helping create That definitely foreshadows 00:08:12.470 --> 00:08:15.250 things to come, like Starburns. For sure. And 00:08:15.250 --> 00:08:18.069 even on Conan, while he was primarily this powerhouse 00:08:18.069 --> 00:08:20.629 writer behind the scenes, he did leave an on 00:08:20.629 --> 00:08:22.769 -screen footprint, too, with these deep -cut 00:08:22.769 --> 00:08:25.250 bits that became part of the show's, like, internal 00:08:25.250 --> 00:08:27.990 mythology. Oh, like what? Characters like Tamori 00:08:27.990 --> 00:08:31.379 the ostrich. The kiss -ass turkey. Or his recurring, 00:08:31.500 --> 00:08:34.419 slightly creepy Abe Lincoln impressions. I think 00:08:34.419 --> 00:08:36.340 I remember the Lincoln. Yeah, these weren't just 00:08:36.340 --> 00:08:38.940 throwaway appearances. They show a performer 00:08:38.940 --> 00:08:41.340 willing to fully commit to the most ridiculous, 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:44.740 often low -budget character concepts. And that 00:08:44.740 --> 00:08:46.740 sensibility, that willingness to embrace the 00:08:46.740 --> 00:08:49.700 absurd and the cheap is absolutely key to understanding 00:08:49.700 --> 00:08:52.059 his later work, especially on Adult Swim. Okay, 00:08:52.139 --> 00:08:55.299 so he conquers the mainstream, high -volume world. 00:08:55.679 --> 00:08:58.159 Proves he can deliver top -tier comedy five nights 00:08:58.159 --> 00:09:00.769 a week for years. But here's a question that 00:09:00.769 --> 00:09:03.690 springs to mind. Given that level of success, 00:09:03.909 --> 00:09:07.230 that stability, I mean, 540 credits on Conan, 00:09:07.330 --> 00:09:10.029 that's a steady gig wide pivot. Why move into 00:09:10.029 --> 00:09:12.649 the niche, often low audience world of something 00:09:12.649 --> 00:09:15.429 like Mr. Show? Was that a professional risk or 00:09:15.429 --> 00:09:17.370 was it more of an artistic necessity for him? 00:09:17.490 --> 00:09:19.210 I think you hit it with the second one. It feels 00:09:19.210 --> 00:09:21.690 absolutely like an artistic necessity. And it's 00:09:21.690 --> 00:09:23.629 a really crucial pivot point that takes us neatly 00:09:23.629 --> 00:09:26.710 into our next section. cult status and the shift 00:09:26.710 --> 00:09:29.769 towards creator roles after mastering that relentless 00:09:29.769 --> 00:09:33.529 joke a minute pace of late night the chance to 00:09:33.529 --> 00:09:35.529 work on something like mr show must have felt 00:09:35.529 --> 00:09:39.070 like like breathing different air it was collaborative 00:09:39.070 --> 00:09:41.870 deeply strange and allowed him to build something 00:09:41.870 --> 00:09:45.529 more cohesive more artistically ambitious maybe 00:09:46.059 --> 00:09:48.500 And the sources confirm this was a depening of 00:09:48.500 --> 00:09:50.980 that Odenkirk collaboration, right? Mr. Show 00:09:50.980 --> 00:09:53.379 with Bob and David. Yeah. That ran from 96 to 00:09:53.379 --> 00:09:55.659 98. Yeah, he's right back with Odenkirk. And 00:09:55.659 --> 00:09:57.759 his role there starts to evolve significantly. 00:09:57.899 --> 00:10:00.940 He's still writing, contributes 21 writing credits, 00:10:00.980 --> 00:10:03.919 and he's acting more too, about 13 acting credits, 00:10:03.960 --> 00:10:06.340 playing various weirdos. Still doing both. Still 00:10:06.340 --> 00:10:08.600 doing both. But the big change, the really important 00:10:08.600 --> 00:10:11.519 shift, is he steps into production. He served 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:13.539 as a producer and also a consulting producer 00:10:13.539 --> 00:10:16.820 for 10 episodes. Oh, okay. So that's new. That's 00:10:16.820 --> 00:10:18.799 the moment, I think, where he stops being just 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:20.860 a brilliant staff writer and starts becoming 00:10:20.860 --> 00:10:24.000 someone who manages the whole creative and logistical 00:10:24.000 --> 00:10:26.620 process of making a show. He's learning how to 00:10:26.620 --> 00:10:29.940 build the whole boat, not just pull an oar. That 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.399 production experience had to be absolutely vital 00:10:32.399 --> 00:10:34.580 for everything that came later when he started 00:10:34.580 --> 00:10:37.570 creating his own shows. Undoubtedly. Which leads 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:40.730 us to another interesting footnote, maybe, in 00:10:40.730 --> 00:10:44.049 animation history. The TV Funhouse Experiment. 00:10:44.250 --> 00:10:48.000 This was with Robert Smigel. Oh, right. Spy Joel 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.240 of SNL's TV Funhouse cartoons, the ambiguously 00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.759 gay duo, stuff like that. Exactly. So TV Funhouse, 00:10:55.860 --> 00:10:59.120 the show, this was around 2000, 2001, was an 00:10:59.120 --> 00:11:01.980 attempt to take those beloved, often notorious 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:05.000 SNL animated shorts known for their dark humor, 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:07.440 their puppet stuff, the crude animation, and 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:09.720 spin them off into their own half hour sketch 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:12.440 comedy series on Comedy Central. Instamodels 00:11:12.440 --> 00:11:14.299 was involved in that. Heavily involved, both 00:11:14.299 --> 00:11:16.580 writing and acting again. Characters like Chicky, 00:11:16.700 --> 00:11:18.580 Mr. Whiskers, names that probably don't ring 00:11:18.580 --> 00:11:20.639 a bell for most. Probably not, no. But here you 00:11:20.639 --> 00:11:23.580 have these two sort of geniuses of dark, puppet 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:26.799 -based, boundary -pushing satire, Smigel and 00:11:26.799 --> 00:11:28.720 Stamatopoulos, trying to bring that very specific 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.580 sensibility to a weekly network show. And how 00:11:31.580 --> 00:11:34.399 did that go? The sources say, not well. Yeah, 00:11:34.440 --> 00:11:36.259 it was quick. Cancelled after just one season. 00:11:37.309 --> 00:11:40.690 Which is fascinating, right? Why did that specific 00:11:40.690 --> 00:11:43.029 brand of comedy, which feels so prescient now, 00:11:43.289 --> 00:11:46.730 fail to connect back in 2000, only to basically 00:11:46.730 --> 00:11:49.529 dominate niche cable a few years later? Timing, 00:11:49.529 --> 00:11:51.710 maybe? Context? I think it's got to be timing 00:11:51.710 --> 00:11:55.029 and context. In 2000, that kind of high concept, 00:11:55.169 --> 00:11:58.429 cynical, puppet heavy satire probably just felt... 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:01.399 Weird. Uncomfortable for a general audience maybe 00:12:01.399 --> 00:12:03.919 expecting something more like The Simpsons or 00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:05.960 even South Park. It hadn't quite found its natural 00:12:05.960 --> 00:12:08.740 home yet. Too dark. Too specific. Maybe all of 00:12:08.740 --> 00:12:11.480 the above. And perhaps, ironically, too slow 00:12:11.480 --> 00:12:14.220 or handcrafted compared to the, you know, faster, 00:12:14.320 --> 00:12:17.480 cruder cutout style that South Park had popularized. 00:12:17.659 --> 00:12:19.240 But he didn't give up on sketch or writing, did 00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:21.820 he? No, not at all. The sources show he kept 00:12:21.820 --> 00:12:24.720 his hand in. He wrote for 50 episodes of MADtv 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:28.179 between 2002 and 2004. Wow, 50 episodes. That's 00:12:28.179 --> 00:12:30.159 substantial. Yeah, keeping those sketch muscles 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.720 flexed. And he even did some voice work for Saturday 00:12:32.720 --> 00:12:34.919 Night Live around that time for episodes, including, 00:12:35.139 --> 00:12:37.259 interestingly, voicing Michael Jackson in something. 00:12:37.559 --> 00:12:41.279 Huh. Okay. But the real shift, the moment he 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:45.200 finds that proper home for his sensibility, that 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.360 came with Adult Swim, didn't it? Absolutely. 00:12:47.519 --> 00:12:50.200 This is the turning point. He stops just working 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:52.440 for established networks or shows and starts 00:12:52.440 --> 00:12:56.259 actively pioneering the unique, strange, often 00:12:56.259 --> 00:12:58.500 quite dark comedy that would become the absolute 00:12:58.500 --> 00:13:01.320 signature aesthetic of Adult Swim in its early 00:13:01.320 --> 00:13:03.740 formative years. He was there right at the beginning 00:13:03.740 --> 00:13:06.179 of that whole wave. Pretty much. This is the 00:13:06.179 --> 00:13:08.759 era where he really leans into his black comedy 00:13:08.759 --> 00:13:11.039 roots, the stuff that maybe didn't fly on network 00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:14.120 TV. He worked as a writer and crucially a creative 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:16.419 consultant on the first season of Tom. Tom Goes 00:13:16.419 --> 00:13:19.120 to the Mayor. Ah, the Tim and Eric show. With 00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:21.600 Bob Odenkirk involved too, right? Exactly. That 00:13:21.600 --> 00:13:24.360 holy trinity of weirdness, Tim Heidecker, Eric 00:13:24.360 --> 00:13:26.399 Wareheim, and Odenkirk. And Stenotopoulos is 00:13:26.399 --> 00:13:28.960 there consulting. That show, Tom Goes to the 00:13:28.960 --> 00:13:33.019 Mayor, 2004 -2005, was intentionally visually 00:13:33.019 --> 00:13:35.899 abrasive. Purposefully cheap looking, uncomfortable, 00:13:36.159 --> 00:13:38.399 using that very limited photo animation style. 00:13:38.659 --> 00:13:41.460 Yeah, it was like nothing else on TV. And Stomatopoulos 00:13:41.460 --> 00:13:44.179 was right there, helping to shape that new comedic 00:13:44.179 --> 00:13:47.240 language. A language where awkwardness, bad taste, 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:50.139 and purposeful low production value weren't bugs, 00:13:50.360 --> 00:13:52.799 they were features. They were part of the joke 00:13:52.799 --> 00:13:55.240 itself. He also really embraced voice acting 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:57.120 in that Adult Swim space, didn't he? Oh, totally. 00:13:57.299 --> 00:13:59.100 He provided the voice for the main character, 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:01.740 Drinky Crow, on The Drinky Crow Show, which was 00:14:01.740 --> 00:14:04.419 based on a comic strip by Tony Millionaire. That 00:14:04.419 --> 00:14:08.379 ran 2007 to 2009. Drinky Crow. Oh. Okay, these 00:14:08.379 --> 00:14:10.570 names are definitely deep cuts. They are. But 00:14:10.570 --> 00:14:12.950 they show his commitment to this specific, dark, 00:14:13.090 --> 00:14:15.710 absurdist animated sandbox that Adult Swim was 00:14:15.710 --> 00:14:18.110 becoming. He's voicing this drunken, suicidal 00:14:18.110 --> 00:14:21.149 crow alongside characters like Lieutenant Raunchy. 00:14:21.149 --> 00:14:23.690 It's not mainstream fare. No kidding. So what's 00:14:23.690 --> 00:14:25.690 fascinating then is watching that evolution, 00:14:25.850 --> 00:14:27.990 right? From the high polish, high volume joke 00:14:27.990 --> 00:14:30.649 factory of Conan. Right. To the low fidelity, 00:14:30.970 --> 00:14:33.429 often self -driven experimental vibe of early 00:14:33.429 --> 00:14:36.110 Adult Swim. It feels like he consciously traded. 00:14:36.720 --> 00:14:39.279 maybe financial security and massive exposure 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:42.100 for something else. Absolute creative control, 00:14:42.220 --> 00:14:45.879 I'd argue, and the freedom to explore genuinely 00:14:45.879 --> 00:14:48.360 bleak, uncomfortable themes that would never 00:14:48.360 --> 00:14:50.799 fly on network. And this whole period, it's perfectly 00:14:50.799 --> 00:14:53.139 setting the stage for his own breakthrough as 00:14:53.139 --> 00:14:55.480 a creator, as a showrunner. Which brings us, 00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:57.659 yeah, to the moment where he really carves out 00:14:57.659 --> 00:15:01.039 his own distinct aesthetic, creates a work that 00:15:01.039 --> 00:15:04.320 feels... foundational really to a lot of modern 00:15:04.320 --> 00:15:07.679 black comedy animation. We got a deep dive into 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:10.980 Moral Oral. Yes. Moral Oral. If you were to pick 00:15:10.980 --> 00:15:13.399 one project that encapsulates the stomatopolis 00:15:13.399 --> 00:15:16.340 sensibility, this might be it. It's his masterpiece 00:15:16.340 --> 00:15:19.399 of like satirical horror almost. Okay. Break 00:15:19.399 --> 00:15:21.309 it down for us. What was it? It's a stop motion 00:15:21.309 --> 00:15:23.990 animated series premiered bizarrely on Christmas 00:15:23.990 --> 00:15:26.809 Day 2005 on Adult Swim. And visually, it looks 00:15:26.809 --> 00:15:28.970 like, you know, those classic Rankin Bass holiday 00:15:28.970 --> 00:15:31.509 specials. Rudolph Santa Claus is coming to town. 00:15:31.629 --> 00:15:33.889 Oh, yeah, totally. That slightly jerky, charming, 00:15:34.009 --> 00:15:36.690 handmade look. Exactly that aesthetic. But he 00:15:36.690 --> 00:15:40.110 takes that sweet childlike visual style and applies 00:15:40.110 --> 00:15:42.909 it to this story about a young boy, Oral Puppington. 00:15:44.190 --> 00:15:47.190 Orrell is relentlessly optimistic, maybe pathologically 00:15:47.190 --> 00:15:50.169 so, and he lives in this fictional, hyper -religious, 00:15:50.309 --> 00:15:54.070 middle American town called Moralton. State of 00:15:54.070 --> 00:15:56.049 state soda. Gotcha, and the premise? The premise 00:15:56.049 --> 00:15:59.769 is just brilliant satire. Orrell constantly tries 00:15:59.769 --> 00:16:01.649 to do the right thing, according to the very 00:16:01.649 --> 00:16:04.370 rigid, often deeply hypocritical and contradictory 00:16:04.370 --> 00:16:07.549 moral guidance he gets from his church, his community, 00:16:07.730 --> 00:16:11.299 and especially his repressed... alcoholic father 00:16:11.299 --> 00:16:13.480 clay and he takes it all literally right always 00:16:13.480 --> 00:16:16.360 literally which inevitably leads to just absolute 00:16:16.360 --> 00:16:18.539 chaos usually involving sin misunderstanding 00:16:18.539 --> 00:16:21.159 scripture in the worst possible way and often 00:16:21.159 --> 00:16:23.200 resulting in severe violence or emotional trauma 00:16:23.200 --> 00:16:25.840 for the townsfolk or for oral himself so that 00:16:25.840 --> 00:16:28.379 visual style the innocent look is completely 00:16:28.379 --> 00:16:30.500 deceptive that's the key to the whole thing it 00:16:30.500 --> 00:16:32.940 looks charming nostalgic pulls you in with that 00:16:32.940 --> 00:16:34.879 familiar warmth and then it just sucker punches 00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:37.379 you with incredibly sharp intellectual and utterly 00:16:37.379 --> 00:16:40.240 bleak writing about faith hypocrisy the abuse, 00:16:40.419 --> 00:16:42.940 you name it. And he was deeply involved in this 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:45.059 one, not just writing. Oh, totally running it. 00:16:45.139 --> 00:16:47.779 The sources say he got 37 writing credits across 00:16:47.779 --> 00:16:51.120 the three seasons, and he directed eight episodes 00:16:51.120 --> 00:16:54.700 himself. That level of control over the look, 00:16:54.779 --> 00:16:57.759 the scripts, the pacing, the performances, that's 00:16:57.759 --> 00:17:00.039 what allowed Moral Oral to achieve its unique, 00:17:00.200 --> 00:17:03.580 often devastating tone. Talk about that technical 00:17:03.580 --> 00:17:05.720 choice again. Stop motion. He could write live 00:17:05.720 --> 00:17:07.700 action, obviously. He'd work on cheap, limited 00:17:07.700 --> 00:17:10.720 animation like Tom Goes to the Mayor. Why choose 00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:13.839 stop motion? It's notoriously slow, agonizing 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:15.940 work. Well, if you think about it thematically, 00:17:16.200 --> 00:17:18.559 stop motion is almost the ultimate antithesis 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:21.579 to the fast paced, disposable world of late night 00:17:21.579 --> 00:17:23.420 writing he came from. Oh, yeah. That's a great 00:17:23.420 --> 00:17:26.200 point. Stop motion is painstaking. Every tiny 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.839 movement, every subtle shift in a puppet's expression 00:17:28.839 --> 00:17:32.220 takes hours of physical manipulation by animators, 00:17:32.339 --> 00:17:35.819 frame by frame. For a show like Mora Oral, which 00:17:35.819 --> 00:17:37.779 digs into these deep seated issues, religious 00:17:37.779 --> 00:17:40.920 hypocrisy, generational trauma, slow burn existential 00:17:40.920 --> 00:17:44.190 dread, that methodical, slightly unnatural. visual 00:17:44.190 --> 00:17:47.069 medium works perfectly. How so? It gives everything 00:17:47.069 --> 00:17:49.769 this uncanny valley feeling, doesn't it? The 00:17:49.769 --> 00:17:52.049 characters look humanish, but not quite real. 00:17:52.250 --> 00:17:54.769 Their movements are deliberate, sometimes jerky. 00:17:54.910 --> 00:17:57.470 Human behavior, when filtered through these puppets, 00:17:57.529 --> 00:18:00.569 looks both familiar and deeply, deeply unsettling. 00:18:00.710 --> 00:18:03.069 It mirrors the unsettling nature of the town 00:18:03.069 --> 00:18:05.029 itself. And the show didn't just stick to one 00:18:05.029 --> 00:18:07.809 tone, did it? The sources mentioned a pretty 00:18:07.809 --> 00:18:10.769 famous or infamous tonal shift in the third season. 00:18:10.910 --> 00:18:13.400 Oh yeah, that shift is legendary among - fans 00:18:13.400 --> 00:18:15.579 it's arguably one of the most drastic and i'd 00:18:15.579 --> 00:18:18.079 say artistically courageous moves ever made in 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:20.700 animated tv what happened well the first two 00:18:20.700 --> 00:18:23.099 seasons while dark were still largely high concept 00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:25.920 black comedy you know based on oral's disastrous 00:18:25.920 --> 00:18:28.599 misinterpretations of religion leading to funny 00:18:28.599 --> 00:18:31.440 albeit dark outcomes but season three particularly 00:18:31.440 --> 00:18:34.019 the episodes that focus on oral's father clay 00:18:34.019 --> 00:18:38.019 and his backstory the show just shifts abruptly 00:18:38.019 --> 00:18:42.250 into straight up harrowing drama. It starts exploring 00:18:42.250 --> 00:18:45.329 really unflinchingly themes of childhood abuse, 00:18:45.650 --> 00:18:48.890 alcoholism, repressed sexuality, marital despair, 00:18:49.210 --> 00:18:53.569 intergenerational trauma. The comedy just evaporates 00:18:53.569 --> 00:18:57.109 and the show becomes genuinely, profoundly tragic 00:18:57.109 --> 00:18:59.769 using the same cute puppets. That must have been 00:18:59.769 --> 00:19:02.009 incredibly jarring for the audience. Taking these 00:19:02.009 --> 00:19:04.150 cartoon puppets and suddenly demanding you take 00:19:04.150 --> 00:19:07.269 their pain seriously is drama. Exactly. It shocked 00:19:07.269 --> 00:19:10.210 people. But it worked because Cinematopoulos 00:19:10.210 --> 00:19:13.049 had built up this world, used the inherent trust 00:19:13.049 --> 00:19:15.809 and familiarity of that stop -motion style, and 00:19:15.809 --> 00:19:18.269 then weaponized it, basically, to deliver this 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:21.450 unexpected, genuine, emotional gut punch. It 00:19:21.450 --> 00:19:23.390 proved he wasn't just about jokes. He was capable 00:19:23.390 --> 00:19:26.190 of really profound, difficult storytelling. So 00:19:26.190 --> 00:19:29.529 Oral ends its run, final episode in late 2008, 00:19:29.690 --> 00:19:31.670 though there was a follow -up special later in 00:19:31.670 --> 00:19:34.000 2012. Did he stick with stop motion after that? 00:19:34.039 --> 00:19:35.680 He did. He clearly found his niche there. He 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:37.579 followed it up pretty directly with another stop 00:19:37.579 --> 00:19:40.240 motion series for Adult Swim called Mary Shelley's 00:19:40.240 --> 00:19:42.380 Frankenhall. That ran for two seasons, between 00:19:42.380 --> 00:19:44.660 2010 and 2012. Frankenhall, okay. Same vibe. 00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.319 Similar dark, satirical, character -driven vibe. 00:19:48.619 --> 00:19:51.539 Using stop motion again. And on this one, he 00:19:51.539 --> 00:19:54.000 was, again, the creator, writer, producer, and 00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.000 also a major voice actor. He voiced characters 00:19:56.000 --> 00:19:58.640 like Death, the Mummy, and even Mother Teresa, 00:19:58.740 --> 00:20:02.259 I believe. So again, he's building this entire 00:20:02.259 --> 00:20:04.319 bizarre universe pretty much from the ground 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:06.940 up, controlling the aesthetic, infusing it with 00:20:06.940 --> 00:20:09.559 his very particular brand of historical and religious 00:20:09.559 --> 00:20:12.579 absurdity. It really solidified his signature 00:20:12.579 --> 00:20:15.829 style on Adult Swim. He did briefly try other 00:20:15.829 --> 00:20:17.789 animation styles too, right? High School USA. 00:20:18.170 --> 00:20:20.650 Yeah, that was in 2013. A more traditional 2D 00:20:20.650 --> 00:20:23.190 animated show co -created with him. He was creator, 00:20:23.309 --> 00:20:25.470 writer, producer, and voiced one of the main 00:20:25.470 --> 00:20:27.650 characters, Mr. Merriweather. It was maybe a 00:20:27.650 --> 00:20:30.809 bit lighter, but still had that satirical edge. 00:20:31.109 --> 00:20:33.349 But his commitment to stop motion clearly runs 00:20:33.349 --> 00:20:35.410 deep. Because it wasn't just for his own adult 00:20:35.410 --> 00:20:37.710 swim comedies. He got involved in feature film 00:20:37.710 --> 00:20:40.079 production with it too. Right. And this is a 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:42.480 really significant step, I think, showing his 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:44.640 evolution and his respect for the craft itself. 00:20:44.940 --> 00:20:47.640 He served as a producer on the 2015 stop motion 00:20:47.640 --> 00:20:50.660 animated feature film Anomalisa. Directed by 00:20:50.660 --> 00:20:53.720 Charlie Kaufman. That's a serious film. Not exactly 00:20:53.720 --> 00:20:56.440 a comedy. Not at all. Anomalisa is high art. 00:20:56.920 --> 00:20:59.819 It's existential drama, intensely emotional, 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:03.640 technically brilliant stop motion, a world away 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:06.400 from the fast -paced, cynical satire of Adult 00:21:06.400 --> 00:21:09.000 Swim, even though it shares the medium. So the 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:11.640 fact that he, Dinos Dimitopoulos, was involved 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:15.019 in producing that film, an Oscar -nominated drama, 00:21:15.259 --> 00:21:18.109 what does that tell you? It tells me his dedication 00:21:18.109 --> 00:21:20.250 to stop motion goes beyond just using it for 00:21:20.250 --> 00:21:23.349 his own specific comedic purposes. He's validating 00:21:23.349 --> 00:21:26.210 the craft itself as a serious, powerful, artistic 00:21:26.210 --> 00:21:29.170 medium capable of telling complex adult stories. 00:21:29.309 --> 00:21:31.950 He's investing in its legitimacy. Okay, so while 00:21:31.950 --> 00:21:34.890 he's knee -deep in the painstaking world of arthouse 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:37.609 stop motion, there's this completely parallel 00:21:37.609 --> 00:21:39.450 track happening, the thing he's probably most 00:21:39.450 --> 00:21:41.990 famous for visually. Yep. While he's producing 00:21:41.990 --> 00:21:44.410 Kaufman, he's simultaneously walking around the 00:21:44.410 --> 00:21:46.950 Greendale Community College set with giant stars 00:21:46.950 --> 00:21:49.329 glued to his face. Which brings us perfectly 00:21:49.329 --> 00:21:52.730 into Section 4, Community, the Legend of Starburns, 00:21:52.730 --> 00:21:54.750 and how all this eventually leads to him building 00:21:54.750 --> 00:21:57.480 his own industry infrastructure. Right. The community 00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:01.660 years, roughly 2009 to 2015, they perfectly encapsulate 00:22:01.660 --> 00:22:04.400 that dual identity he had developed in the comedy 00:22:04.400 --> 00:22:07.180 world. How so? Well, behind the scenes, he was 00:22:07.180 --> 00:22:10.099 a major creative force. The sources list him 00:22:10.099 --> 00:22:12.859 as a consulting producer for 37 episodes and 00:22:12.859 --> 00:22:15.700 a consulting writer for 24 episodes. That means 00:22:15.700 --> 00:22:18.059 he was deeply involved in shaping the show's 00:22:18.059 --> 00:22:21.119 overall structure, its tone, breaking stories 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:23.640 in the writer's room. So way more than just an 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:25.799 actor dropping in. Oh, absolutely. He was part 00:22:25.799 --> 00:22:27.509 of the core. creative brain trust, especially 00:22:27.509 --> 00:22:29.990 working closely with Dan Harmon. But he did more 00:22:29.990 --> 00:22:32.529 than just consult in the traditional sense. He 00:22:32.529 --> 00:22:35.690 actually used his very specific animation expertise 00:22:35.690 --> 00:22:38.269 to directly contribute to some of the show's 00:22:38.269 --> 00:22:40.910 most ambitious episodes. He animated ones. Exactly. 00:22:41.009 --> 00:22:43.609 He wrote two key animated episodes that really 00:22:43.609 --> 00:22:46.009 leveraged his unique background. Which one? He 00:22:46.009 --> 00:22:48.750 wrote A Bed's Uncontrollable Christmas back in 00:22:48.750 --> 00:22:51.950 2010. And that entire episode was done in. Stop 00:22:51.950 --> 00:22:54.849 motion, of course. Yep. His preferred medium. 00:22:54.910 --> 00:22:57.410 It was like this perfect Trojan horse, wasn't 00:22:57.410 --> 00:23:00.750 it? It took the experimental, slightly dark, 00:23:00.890 --> 00:23:03.809 emotionally intense style he'd honed on Moral 00:23:03.809 --> 00:23:07.490 Oral and folded it right into the quirky, established 00:23:07.490 --> 00:23:10.710 universe of a major network sitcom. And it worked. 00:23:10.910 --> 00:23:13.529 It won an Emmy for animation, didn't it? It did. 00:23:13.730 --> 00:23:16.710 It proved that his cult aesthetic, when paired 00:23:16.710 --> 00:23:18.549 with the strong character work and writing of 00:23:18.549 --> 00:23:21.390 Community, actually had broad appeal. It wasn't 00:23:21.390 --> 00:23:23.349 too weird for Network if done right. What was 00:23:23.349 --> 00:23:25.210 the other animated episode he wrote? That was 00:23:25.210 --> 00:23:28.269 G .I. Jeff in 2014, which was done in the style 00:23:28.269 --> 00:23:31.670 of the classic 80s G .I. Joe cartoons. So that 00:23:31.670 --> 00:23:34.170 showed his versatility, again, adapting his comedic 00:23:34.170 --> 00:23:35.970 voice and understanding of animation history 00:23:35.970 --> 00:23:38.369 to a completely different but equally high concept 00:23:38.369 --> 00:23:41.670 visual style. Incredible range. Consultant, writer, 00:23:41.890 --> 00:23:44.809 animation. an expert, and then, yeah, the acting 00:23:44.809 --> 00:23:47.190 role, the massive irony of Alex Starburn's Osborne. 00:23:47.309 --> 00:23:49.549 It's just the ultimate meta joke, isn't it? Here's 00:23:49.549 --> 00:23:52.390 this guy who spent decades as this incredibly 00:23:52.390 --> 00:23:55.109 influential but largely unseen force in comedy, 00:23:55.190 --> 00:23:57.309 writing hundreds of episodes, producing shows, 00:23:57.450 --> 00:24:00.190 shaping aesthetics, and his face becomes instantly 00:24:00.190 --> 00:24:02.950 recognizable to millions. Because he plays a 00:24:02.950 --> 00:24:05.549 background character with ridiculous sideburns 00:24:05.549 --> 00:24:07.470 who spends most of his time complaining about 00:24:07.470 --> 00:24:11.680 his nickname. Exactly. My name is Alex. The character 00:24:11.680 --> 00:24:15.119 is iconic, though. The huge, poorly drawn star 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:18.299 -shaped sideburns, the weird lizard he sometimes 00:24:18.299 --> 00:24:21.599 carried, the constant protest. How many episodes 00:24:21.599 --> 00:24:24.779 was he actually in? Sources say 39 episodes of 00:24:24.779 --> 00:24:28.380 Starburns, mostly as this kind of background 00:24:28.380 --> 00:24:30.819 texture character, which is funny because in 00:24:30.819 --> 00:24:32.960 a way, Starburns is almost like a physical manifestation 00:24:32.960 --> 00:24:35.940 of Stomatopoulos' own career journey up to that 00:24:35.940 --> 00:24:38.019 point. You know what I mean? Well, here's someone 00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:40.460 with incredible depth, complexity, a whole... 00:24:40.490 --> 00:24:43.539 hidden history of creative work? constantly trying 00:24:43.539 --> 00:24:46.140 to escape this simple, shallow label people put 00:24:46.140 --> 00:24:48.579 on him, the guy who wrote for Conan or just Starburns. 00:24:48.579 --> 00:24:50.880 But ultimately, he's kind of defined in the public 00:24:50.880 --> 00:24:54.500 eye by that one memorable, singular visual gimmick. 00:24:54.740 --> 00:24:57.079 There's a layer of irony there he must appreciate. 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.099 Has to. Now, this whole experience on Community 00:25:00.099 --> 00:25:02.900 being both a key creative architect and a highly 00:25:02.900 --> 00:25:05.779 visible, almost cult figure actor, seems to have 00:25:05.779 --> 00:25:08.140 led directly to a major business venture, right? 00:25:08.460 --> 00:25:11.839 Starburns Industries. Yes. This is the critical 00:25:11.839 --> 00:25:14.569 next. step, the transition from being a practitioner, 00:25:14.950 --> 00:25:18.210 a creator, an artist to becoming an infrastructure 00:25:18.210 --> 00:25:20.930 builder. He co -founded the production company 00:25:20.930 --> 00:25:24.009 Starburns Industries with community creator Dan 00:25:24.009 --> 00:25:27.779 Harmon. Starburns Industries. Not subtle. Not 00:25:27.779 --> 00:25:30.819 subtle at all, but it makes perfect sense. Starburns 00:25:30.819 --> 00:25:33.140 Industries feels like the physical realization 00:25:33.140 --> 00:25:36.000 of everything he learned and mastered up to that 00:25:36.000 --> 00:25:39.160 point. It's set up as a hub designed specifically 00:25:39.160 --> 00:25:42.220 to combine that high concept, often absurdist 00:25:42.220 --> 00:25:44.680 comedy sensibility with specialized animation 00:25:44.680 --> 00:25:47.539 production. And his deep expertise in stop motion 00:25:47.539 --> 00:25:49.720 was obviously a core part of that. Didn't they 00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:51.769 produce Anomalisa? They did. That was one of 00:25:51.769 --> 00:25:54.750 their first big projects. Producing Charlie Kaufman's 00:25:54.750 --> 00:25:57.089 Anomaliza immediately established the company's 00:25:57.089 --> 00:25:59.410 credentials for handling serious, high -quality, 00:25:59.490 --> 00:26:02.130 artistically ambitious animation. It showed they 00:26:02.130 --> 00:26:04.009 weren't just about, you know, goofy adult swim 00:26:04.009 --> 00:26:06.269 stuff. They had range. But they didn't just focus 00:26:06.269 --> 00:26:08.289 on arthouse cinema, did they? They leveraged 00:26:08.289 --> 00:26:10.970 their sketch comedy roots, too. Oh, yeah. They 00:26:10.970 --> 00:26:14.450 also produced W. Bob and David in 2015, the Netflix 00:26:14.450 --> 00:26:16.970 revival of Mr. Show. which brought him right 00:26:16.970 --> 00:26:19.069 back into collaboration with Odenkirk and Cross. 00:26:19.329 --> 00:26:21.769 So that perfectly illustrates the company's mission 00:26:21.769 --> 00:26:23.930 then, right? Bridging those worlds. Exactly. 00:26:24.089 --> 00:26:26.269 They're bridging the gap between the high art 00:26:26.269 --> 00:26:29.009 stop motion world of someone like Kaufman and 00:26:29.009 --> 00:26:31.329 the cult sketch comedy world of Odenkirk and 00:26:31.329 --> 00:26:35.230 Cross. And you also see his fingerprints on other 00:26:35.230 --> 00:26:37.650 adjacent projects around this time. He was an 00:26:37.650 --> 00:26:41.190 executive producer on the 2014 documentary Harmontown 00:26:41.190 --> 00:26:44.329 about Dan Harmon's podcast tour. So he's getting 00:26:44.329 --> 00:26:48.730 involved in that whole bird. Right. He's taking 00:26:48.730 --> 00:26:50.410 all the lessons learned from the pressure cooker 00:26:50.410 --> 00:26:52.690 of 90s late night, the creative freedom of adult 00:26:52.690 --> 00:26:55.049 swim, the collaborative energy of community, 00:26:55.170 --> 00:26:57.450 and he's building a factory. A system designed 00:26:57.450 --> 00:27:00.250 to enable and produce the unique, strange, often 00:27:00.250 --> 00:27:03.309 difficult voices of 21st century comedy and animation. 00:27:03.730 --> 00:27:05.789 And his production roles kept diversifying after 00:27:05.789 --> 00:27:08.450 that, too. Yeah, the sources show him continuing 00:27:08.450 --> 00:27:10.490 to work across different genres and platforms. 00:27:10.809 --> 00:27:13.410 He was co -executive producer on Louis C .K.'s 00:27:13.410 --> 00:27:16.230 self -funded, self -distributed web series Horace 00:27:16.230 --> 00:27:19.750 and Pete. Which was really different. Dark, theatrical, 00:27:20.210 --> 00:27:22.940 super realistic drama. Almost like watching a 00:27:22.940 --> 00:27:25.339 play. Totally different feel. And he was also 00:27:25.339 --> 00:27:27.420 a consulting producer on Great Minds with Dan 00:27:27.420 --> 00:27:30.380 Harmon. So it's clear his influence now is less 00:27:30.380 --> 00:27:32.759 about being the sole creator on everything and 00:27:32.759 --> 00:27:37.210 more about enabling, producing, consulting. applying 00:27:37.210 --> 00:27:39.089 his unique structural knowledge and aesthetic 00:27:39.089 --> 00:27:41.450 sensibility across a wider range of projects. 00:27:41.769 --> 00:27:44.130 He knows how to take a niche, maybe difficult 00:27:44.130 --> 00:27:46.529 idea, whether that's bleak animation or hyper 00:27:46.529 --> 00:27:48.710 -realistic web drama, and help bring it to life 00:27:48.710 --> 00:27:51.230 logistically and creatively. And the most recent 00:27:51.230 --> 00:27:53.269 thing listed in our sources for his own creation 00:27:53.269 --> 00:27:55.769 was an unaired animated pilot. Yeah, called The 00:27:55.769 --> 00:27:58.349 Black Hole from 2021. He created it, starred 00:27:58.349 --> 00:28:00.470 in it, didn't get picked up, it seems, but it 00:28:00.470 --> 00:28:02.390 shows he's still generating his own original 00:28:02.390 --> 00:28:05.029 concepts alongside the producing work. Okay, 00:28:05.069 --> 00:28:07.470 let's pivot slightly. We've tracked the TV and 00:28:07.470 --> 00:28:09.529 film work, the animation, the production company. 00:28:09.809 --> 00:28:11.789 Let's look at his more personal ventures for 00:28:11.789 --> 00:28:14.130 a minute, specifically his deep dive into podcasting. 00:28:14.210 --> 00:28:16.970 This seems to reveal quite a bit about his roots 00:28:16.970 --> 00:28:21.329 and maybe his need for A more direct, self -directed, 00:28:21.329 --> 00:28:23.910 creative outlet. Yeah, the podcasting world is 00:28:23.910 --> 00:28:25.730 interesting for him. And it actually takes us 00:28:25.730 --> 00:28:29.049 back to his origins, his Chicago roots. Stematopoulos 00:28:29.049 --> 00:28:32.049 was apparently a longtime, really devoted fan 00:28:32.049 --> 00:28:34.710 of the legendary Chicago radio personality Steve 00:28:34.710 --> 00:28:37.890 Dahl. Oh, wow. Steve Dahl. Huge name in Chicago 00:28:37.890 --> 00:28:41.039 radio history. Absolutely. And that... deep admiration 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:44.380 that fandom eventually led to simitopoulos hosting 00:28:44.380 --> 00:28:46.799 his first podcast called sorry about everything 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:50.319 that ran from may 2012 to june 2013 and it's 00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:52.460 actually on the steve doll network so a direct 00:28:52.460 --> 00:28:54.740 connection there sorry about everything that 00:28:54.740 --> 00:28:57.380 title it has another connection too doesn't it 00:28:57.380 --> 00:28:59.299 it does it's deeply personal that's also the 00:28:59.299 --> 00:29:01.579 name of his rock band he's the vocalist and guitarist 00:29:01.579 --> 00:29:03.839 in a band called sorry about everything so the 00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:06.480 podcast title reflects the band name Yeah, and 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:09.339 I think it signifies how his comedic and personal 00:29:09.339 --> 00:29:12.440 output often seems channeled through this consistent 00:29:12.440 --> 00:29:15.359 sensibility, right? Slightly self -deprecating, 00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:18.480 darkly reflective, maybe a bit apologetic, but 00:29:18.480 --> 00:29:21.339 also defiant. He takes his own life, his own 00:29:21.339 --> 00:29:23.579 anxieties, and turns them into content, whether 00:29:23.579 --> 00:29:26.640 that's a rock song, a podcast, or a deeply cynical 00:29:26.640 --> 00:29:29.460 stop -motion puppet show about religious trauma. 00:29:29.640 --> 00:29:32.619 It all feels connected. Okay, so after that first 00:29:32.619 --> 00:29:35.170 podcast on the Dahl Network. He starts another 00:29:35.170 --> 00:29:37.269 major one later, right? A weekly show. Yeah. 00:29:37.410 --> 00:29:40.369 In late 2016, he teamed up with his longtime 00:29:40.369 --> 00:29:43.150 friend, the comedian Andy Dick, to start Dino 00:29:43.150 --> 00:29:45.509 and Andy's Skull Juice. It was initially produced 00:29:45.509 --> 00:29:47.809 by Feral Audio, which was a big podcast network 00:29:47.809 --> 00:29:50.309 at the time. Skull Juice. Okay, that sounds different 00:29:50.309 --> 00:29:52.730 from Sorry About Everything. Yeah, the vibe was 00:29:52.730 --> 00:29:54.470 definitely different. Skull Juice was much more 00:29:54.470 --> 00:29:57.460 chaotic, often unscripted, relying on their you 00:29:57.460 --> 00:29:59.519 know, sometimes volatile chemistry. It was a 00:29:59.519 --> 00:30:02.240 real contrast to the meticulous, controlled structure 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:04.740 of his stop -motion animation work. But that 00:30:04.740 --> 00:30:07.980 chaos maybe became an issue. The sources mention 00:30:07.980 --> 00:30:10.000 a pretty critical turning point for that podcast. 00:30:10.440 --> 00:30:12.960 They do. This is where things take a sharp turn. 00:30:13.180 --> 00:30:15.660 The sources are quite clear that in mid -2018, 00:30:15.980 --> 00:30:18.240 Andy Dick was asked to leave the podcast. The 00:30:18.240 --> 00:30:20.960 reason cited was an on -air incident of hostility. 00:30:21.259 --> 00:30:24.099 Wow, okay. So that must have forced a major change. 00:30:24.240 --> 00:30:26.720 A radical, immediate change. It necessitated 00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:29.880 a complete rebranding of the show. And that incident, 00:30:29.940 --> 00:30:33.680 it seems, forced a moment of genuine reevaluation 00:30:33.680 --> 00:30:37.500 for Stomatopoulos. Maybe moving away from embracing 00:30:37.500 --> 00:30:40.299 that kind of chaotic, potentially harmful volatility 00:30:40.299 --> 00:30:43.299 in unscripted comedy and shifting towards creating 00:30:43.299 --> 00:30:45.720 a more controlled, predictable environment. So 00:30:45.720 --> 00:30:47.779 what did it become? The subsequent rebranding 00:30:47.779 --> 00:30:50.400 was, well, pretty striking. And maybe speaks 00:30:50.400 --> 00:31:15.390 volumes. The show became... So a bigger team, 00:31:15.450 --> 00:31:18.089 a deliberately different name. What does that 00:31:18.089 --> 00:31:21.549 pivot tell you? From Skull Juice Chaos to... 00:31:21.849 --> 00:31:24.730 safe space to me it shows a deliberate attempt 00:31:24.730 --> 00:31:28.349 to like curate the comedic environment more carefully 00:31:28.349 --> 00:31:30.390 perhaps reflecting all those lessons learned 00:31:30.390 --> 00:31:32.430 over decades in different creative structures 00:31:32.430 --> 00:31:35.849 the high pressure writer rooms the collaborative 00:31:35.849 --> 00:31:39.109 but sometimes messy world of cult comedy it feels 00:31:39.109 --> 00:31:41.970 like he reached a point where for his own personal 00:31:41.970 --> 00:31:44.549 creative outlet he maybe wanted structure and 00:31:44.549 --> 00:31:47.299 reliability not constant unpredictability and 00:31:47.299 --> 00:31:49.940 potential hostility. Seeking safety, maybe, in 00:31:49.940 --> 00:31:52.599 his own creative space. Could be. It speaks to 00:31:52.599 --> 00:31:54.339 a certain maturity in his career, perhaps. He's 00:31:54.339 --> 00:31:56.200 no longer just chasing the joke wherever it leads. 00:31:56.380 --> 00:31:58.339 He's actively controlling the environment in 00:31:58.339 --> 00:32:00.579 which the joke gets delivered, ensuring a more 00:32:00.579 --> 00:32:03.059 sustainable and, yeah, maybe literally safer 00:32:03.059 --> 00:32:05.819 space for creative expression. And just to round 00:32:05.819 --> 00:32:07.839 out the picture, the sources mention briefly 00:32:07.839 --> 00:32:10.500 his personal life. Just briefly, yeah. Notes 00:32:10.500 --> 00:32:12.940 that he is married and has one daughter, which, 00:32:13.000 --> 00:32:14.980 you know, provides maybe a steady anchor or... 00:32:15.049 --> 00:32:16.970 grounding amidst a career that has spanned such 00:32:16.970 --> 00:32:20.109 wild creative extremes. Okay, so let's try and 00:32:20.109 --> 00:32:21.910 pull this all together now. We've gone from late 00:32:21.910 --> 00:32:23.670 -night joke machines to Emmy -winning sketch 00:32:23.670 --> 00:32:26.410 to cult animation to star burns to production 00:32:26.410 --> 00:32:29.369 companies to podcasting sagas. If you have to 00:32:29.369 --> 00:32:32.450 step back and synthesize this incredible sprawling 00:32:32.450 --> 00:32:35.769 journey, what's the core takeaway for someone 00:32:35.769 --> 00:32:38.289 trying to understand Dinos Dometopoulos' impact? 00:32:38.809 --> 00:32:41.829 The synthesis, I think, is that his career is 00:32:41.829 --> 00:32:44.609 just this masterclass in versatility. But it's 00:32:44.609 --> 00:32:46.990 not random versatility. It's anchored by this 00:32:46.990 --> 00:32:49.970 unwavering artistic commitment to a specific 00:32:49.970 --> 00:32:53.809 sensibility. Satire, usually dark, black comedy. 00:32:54.029 --> 00:32:57.190 He learned speed and volume in the intense forge 00:32:57.190 --> 00:33:00.289 of 90s late night. Then in the 2000s, particularly 00:33:00.289 --> 00:33:03.049 with Adult Swim and Stop Motion, he learned control, 00:33:03.349 --> 00:33:06.670 depth, and how to build entire worlds. He essentially 00:33:06.670 --> 00:33:08.430 used the high pressure training from... the mainstream 00:33:08.430 --> 00:33:11.049 to help define the dark, weird, creator -driven 00:33:11.049 --> 00:33:13.349 aesthetic of the niche. And that unique niche 00:33:13.349 --> 00:33:16.750 he carved out. It seems to be about using seemingly 00:33:16.750 --> 00:33:19.490 innocent or unexpected forms like children's 00:33:19.490 --> 00:33:21.829 holiday special aesthetics, puppets, even the 00:33:21.829 --> 00:33:23.930 goofy look of Starburns to deliver these incredibly 00:33:23.930 --> 00:33:27.029 sharp, often quite brutal critiques. Exactly. 00:33:27.150 --> 00:33:29.549 Critiques of human nature, hypocrisy, faith, 00:33:29.789 --> 00:33:32.650 society. He mastered the joke structure early 00:33:32.650 --> 00:33:35.049 on, but then he mastered the delivery system. 00:33:51.460 --> 00:33:55.440 He found the right tool for each specific dark 00:33:55.440 --> 00:33:58.849 job. Precisely. Which leads us, I think, to the 00:33:58.849 --> 00:34:00.950 final provocative thought we can leave you, the 00:34:00.950 --> 00:34:03.930 listener, with. Something to mull over. It concerns 00:34:03.930 --> 00:34:06.529 this evolution we tracked from him being primarily 00:34:06.529 --> 00:34:08.650 a content creator to becoming more of an infrastructure 00:34:08.650 --> 00:34:11.190 builder. Okay. So if his early career was really 00:34:11.190 --> 00:34:13.909 defined by writing for established comedy giants, 00:34:14.010 --> 00:34:16.530 people like Stiller, Letterman, Conan. Right. 00:34:16.610 --> 00:34:18.429 Working within their systems. And his middle 00:34:18.429 --> 00:34:20.929 career was defined by creating his own groundbreaking 00:34:20.929 --> 00:34:23.590 niche content like Moral Oral, Frank and Hole. 00:34:23.690 --> 00:34:25.809 Building his own unique things. What are the 00:34:25.809 --> 00:34:28.190 implications, then, of his later work focusing 00:34:28.190 --> 00:34:31.269 more on producing, on applying those unique comedic 00:34:31.269 --> 00:34:33.550 sensibilities and that hard -won production knowledge 00:34:33.550 --> 00:34:36.210 to larger collaborative industry structures like 00:34:36.210 --> 00:34:38.789 Starburn's Industries? Right. What does happen 00:34:38.789 --> 00:34:42.739 when a... master of cult comedy, someone who 00:34:42.739 --> 00:34:45.420 genuinely understands how to make difficult, 00:34:45.500 --> 00:34:48.440 specific, maybe commercially risky art, stops 00:34:48.440 --> 00:34:51.239 just making the art themselves and starts building 00:34:51.239 --> 00:34:53.380 the factory, building the system, the funding 00:34:53.380 --> 00:34:55.199 mechanisms, the support structure that allows 00:34:55.199 --> 00:34:57.619 other people, maybe equally strange or niche 00:34:57.619 --> 00:35:00.260 artists, to make their similar kind of art. The 00:35:00.260 --> 00:35:01.940 influence shifts, doesn't it? It potentially 00:35:01.940 --> 00:35:04.679 moves from being primarily about the specific 00:35:04.679 --> 00:35:06.840 content he creates to being about the infrastructure 00:35:06.840 --> 00:35:09.099 he enables. It's like the ultimate evolution, 00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:11.440 maybe. from practitioner to patron, or maybe 00:35:11.440 --> 00:35:14.480 patron isn't the right word, maybe enabler, facilitator. 00:35:14.679 --> 00:35:16.760 Architect. Yeah, architect of a certain kind 00:35:16.760 --> 00:35:19.199 of creative ecosystem. So his legacy isn't just 00:35:19.199 --> 00:35:21.639 the brilliant dark shows he personally created, 00:35:21.760 --> 00:35:24.280 but potentially also the whole system he helped 00:35:24.280 --> 00:35:27.300 formalize and build. A system designed to foster 00:35:27.300 --> 00:35:29.980 and produce exactly that kind of challenging, 00:35:30.219 --> 00:35:34.239 satirical, often darkly funny work. All rooted 00:35:34.239 --> 00:35:37.519 somehow in a dedication to black comedy. And 00:35:37.519 --> 00:35:40.800 maybe, just maybe, a really memorable star -shaped 00:35:40.800 --> 00:35:43.099 set of sideburns. That is definitely something 00:35:43.099 --> 00:35:45.059 to think about. A truly unique path through the 00:35:45.059 --> 00:35:47.239 industry. That's the deepest dive we can take 00:35:47.239 --> 00:35:49.199 for today. Thanks for joining us. Thanks for 00:35:49.199 --> 00:35:50.920 having me. We'll see you next time on The Deep 00:35:50.920 --> 00:35:51.159 Dive.